Episodes
Migration - What's Driving The Small Boat Journey?
Why do they do it - people willing to crowd into small boats, put their lives at risk and pay thousands of pounds to cross the Channel? There's no sign threats of deportation to Rwanda will make any difference to their efforts to reach the UK. Phil and Roger have been speaking to some...
Danger Zone - The Middle East Crisis
On the edge of global conflict - the world held its breath as Israel and Iran attacked each other directly for the first time. But have we really stepped back from the brink? There’s no end in sight to the bloodshed in Gaza, and anger is building globally over the lack of progress in bringing in aid...
A Growing Problem - Can We Keep Expanding The Economy?
Growth in our economy - that’s what politicians tell us we need. But do we? And what sort of growth? And won’t that just hurt the planet even further? Is expanding GDP the only way to keep us all happy and comfortable? Daniel Susskind, Professor of Economics at King’s College, London, gives Phil and...
Is it 1939 in Europe?
A dictator set to succeed in grabbing another sovereign nation, and challenging, with tanks and missiles, the political landscape of Europe - is this, as the Polish prime minister says, our 1939? Should the West be ready for the collapse of an arms-starved Ukraine, and a victorious Vladimir Putin po...
Why Is Populism So Popular?
Populist parties are gaining ground - Reform in Britain looks likely to be a major challenge for the Tories. And Donald Trump's MAGA movement looks set to propel him into the White House in November. Across Europe, too, and in Brazil, the Philippines and Turkey, we have seen the rise ...
Electric Cars In The Slow Lane?
What’s happened to electric cars? Weren’t we all supposed to be driving one by now? Is it the cost, the range or the lack of charging points? Is the government still on track to phase out new petrol cars, and reach net zero on emissions? Tom Stacey of Anglia Ruskin University steers Phil and Roger t...
Prisons In Crisis
Our prisons are at breaking point - too many inmates and not enough cells. How did we get to the point of having more a higher proportion of the population behind bars than any other country in Western Europe? Why do politicians promise “tough on crime” sentences, without providing the means to deli...
Councils of Despair
What happens when the bins aren't collected, the roads are full of holes and the libraries are shut - because the council's gone bankrupt? That's the dilemma facing local government. Europe's largest local authority, Birmingham, has just issued a notice saying it's effectively gone bust. Many others...
The Gaza Effect
Gaza casts a long shadow. In the midst of an economic crisis, in an election year, with transport, education and the NHS all limping along, what is the dominant subject, splitting parties and deciding by-elections? A war 2,000 miles away, over which the UK has next to no influence. Allegations ...